A Torchwood Christmas Carol
by Tylluan
Summary: Total Word Count: 18,551 what I could call a short fic for me! Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Owen, Tosh Summary: Someone isn't feeling the Christmas spirit in the Hub! Read on to find what happens when someone is being a Scrooge.
1. Chapter 1

Gwen walked through the cog wheel door into the Hub and smiled. There was a huge Christmas tree set up and Jack, Ianto and Tosh were decorating it.

"What a festive surprise!" She exclaimed as she stopped and sniffed appreciatively. The fresh pine scent permeated the area and blocked out the more odiferous smells that sometimes came from having a pterodactyl as a pet. "It smells wonderful in here."

Tosh smiled at Gwen as she handed an ornament to Ianto, who was up on a ladder. Jack stood on the bottom rung, holding the ladder in place, but conveniently resting his head against Ianto's derriere. Ianto gave Gwen a look of amusement at the expression on her face before turning back to hang the ornament on the tree.

"There, that should do it," Ianto said with a nod.

"Wait," Jack's voice was muffled before he pulled back slightly so he could be heard. "What about the topper?"

"Oh yes," Tosh said, practically bouncing up and down. "We need that!" She went off to the pile of storage boxes and rummaged through them before giving a cry of triumph and walking over with a box. "Here it is." She opened the box and held it up high enough for Ianto to pull whatever was inside out.

Gwen saw something that looked like concentric rings around a ball base, though it was hard to see it from the ground and Ianto was up high. It didn't look like much as Ianto climbed another two steps and balanced a knee against the top as he stretched up to put it on the top. Jack climbed up another step to support him, putting one hand on the back of his calf to hold him in place. A moment later, it was mounted and Ianto came back down the latter.

"It's ready," he said with a nod. Jack grinned and with a touch of his vortex manipulator lit the tree. Gwen gasped, delighted. The tree had these tiny lights that looked like waterfall drops cascading downwards. Some of the ornaments were lit up, others moved and the one at the top was a tiny galaxy spinning around, the planets, moons and stars all lit up as they rotated around the ball at the top of the tree.

"Oh, it's lovely!" Gwen said with a clap of her hands.

"Oh bugger!" An exclamation came from behind her and she turned around. There stood Owen, hands on his hips as he stared at the display with a look of distaste on his face. "Just what I didn't need this morning. Oi!" He said to Ianto who turned to stare. "Make me a coffee!"

"Good morning to you as well," Ianto said. "Did you crawl out from under the wrong side of the rock this morning?" He didn't make a move to go over towards the coffee machine and Owen scowled.

"No, but I didn't expect to come in to see you lot skiving off. Don't you all have work to do?" Owen asked irritably as he made his way over to the coffee machine. Ianto crossed his arms and watched, knowing Owen would never make heads or tails out of the machine. Owen stood and stared at the device for a moment before sighing and giving Ianto a pleading look.

"Oh, that has to be the saddest look I've ever seen," Jack commented from where he leaned against the ladder. "You should really help him. It might help his disposition."

"Don't think anything will help with that," Ianto muttered. "You know how he is this time of year." Jack pushed off from the ladder and put his hand on Ianto's arm.

"Ianto, you know the reason why," he said in a soft voice. Tosh looked down and nodded. Gwen looked from one to the other with a look of confusion on her face. Ianto sighed and nodded.

"Oh, all right." He moved across the Hub floor and over to where Owen was standing. "Don't touch a thing," he commanded as he moved past Owen to the machine and in what seemed like a blink of the eye had a hot steaming mug presented to the doctor.

"Thanks," Owen said gruffly. He took the mug and headed off in the direction of his console. Dumping his leather coat over the edge of the desk, he sat down and started typing, studiously ignoring the others.

"Well, isn't he just a little ray of sunshine?" Gwen said in a surprised tone. Ianto shrugged and Tosh went back to organizing the empty boxes that had held the ornaments. Gwen turned back to the tree. "I think it's lovely."

"Thank you, Gwen," Jack said with a smile. "Christmas isn't for everyone, after all." He ignored Ianto's mutter about a lot of things not being for everyone when you were a certain doctor coworker. He watched as Tosh and Ianto cleaned up. "Gwen, come with me," Jack said as he headed toward his office. Gwen followed him in and sat down in the chair opposite his desk.

"What's wrong with Owen?" Gwen asked. Jack sighed as he took his seat.

"It's not a good holiday for him," Jack finally said after prevaricating for a few moments. "Don't mind him." Gwen shrugged, accepting him as his word. She was still the new girl on the team so obviously didn't know all of the dynamics of the others. She was surprised to see Jack being so familiar with Ianto on the ladder, but then maybe she had misread what she saw and that Jack had only been holding the ladder steady for Ianto. Tosh hadn't seemed to be too perturbed by it, so it must have been nothing.

"What did you want to see me about?" Gwen asked.

"Got a job for you, right up your alley," Jack said. He went onto explain that they had a delicate situation overnight with the local constabulary and that her skills were needed to smooth over a little mishap that had involved an alien artifact, a rowdy rugby player and an unexplained exit hole in the wall at the local police station. Once he was done explaining the situation, she got right on it, heading out the door and down to talk to her former workmates.

Back out in the main area, Tosh was working on deciphering some new technology that had come through the rift while Owen was ripping apart some hapless alien in the autopsy room while muttering to himself. There was no sign of Ianto and Jack concluded he was working either upstairs in the tourist centre or downstairs in the archives. He watched his team at work, hands in his pockets as he leaned against a support beam.

"Jack, what do you think about doing a Christmas dinner this year?" Toshiko asked. Jack started, surprised that she was even aware he was there. Then he chided himself. Toshiko was often full of surprises.

"Huh, hadn't really thought about it. We could, if you want to," Jack said with a shrug just as Owen was coming up the stairs and pulling off his rubber gloves.

"Do what?" Owen asked. He pulled off his white lab coat and dropped it over a railing, heedless of the fact that Ianto was going to have to clean up the messy garment that was splattered with all sorts of dubious blue matter. Jack wrinkled his nose, but said nothing.

"I thought it would be nice for us to all go out for Christmas dinner together," Tosh said with a bright smile that faltered in the face of Owen's scowl. "I think it would be fun."

"I'd rather have needles stuck into my eyes," Owen muttered with a shudder. "What could possibly be fun about sitting in a restaurant celebrating a useless holiday about spreading good cheer in a world where everyone's out for themselves? It's all about one upmanship when it comes to giving presents, with people either buying the tackiest thing they can find as a joke or trying to see how much they can run up their credit cards just to impress others."

Toshiko blinked at Owen's vehement reply. "I think it's a lovely holiday, and that for people who care about one another, it can mean something more than a people trying to outdo one another on presents."

"Bah, what do you know? Who cares about anyone these days?" Owen asked in disgust. "You shouldn't even be celebrating Christmas!" He turned away and stomped off, leaving a very surprised Toshiko behind him. She turned towards Jack with a confused look on her face.

"Was it something I said?" She asked in a hurt tone. Jack came over and gave her a hug.

"No, honey, it's him. It's not you, and I think a Christmas dinner is a wonderful idea," Jack told her. "Why don't you and Gwen plan something together and the rest of us will join you," he suggested. He looked over her shoulder in the direction that Owen had headed. "Well, those of us who feel celebratory."

"All right," she said. She adjusted the glasses on her nose and turned away. Jack sighed. He was fast losing patience with Owen's attitude. At that moment, Ianto came up from the archives and started walking about to clean up. Jack followed him with his eyes, admiring his efficient moves and well fitted suit. He had to bite his lip as Ianto bent over to pick something up and he resolutely looked up at Myfanwy's nest and started counting backwards from one hundred to distract himself from reacting to Ianto. A sharply inhaled breath broke his concentration and he glanced over to see Ianto's look of distaste as he encountered Owen's lab coat. By this time, some of the alien blood and gore had slid off the fabric and dripped all over the lower bar of the railing and down onto the grid platform. Jack peered downwards and could see it had also dribbled to the area below.

"I'm going to kill him," Ianto muttered. He turned abruptly and grabbed a mop, a pail and some long rubber gloves. Filling the pail with water and detergent, Ianto donned the rubber gloves and gingerly picked up the lab coat. Carefully folding it in on itself to hold the mess, the binned it with a wrinkle of his nose. Shaking his head, he turned back to the mess and started to mop it up, clearly out of sorts. Jack frowned. It was another strike against Owen.

The third strike came the next day when one of Owen's more caustic comments almost brought Gwen to tears. Jack stared down at his team from the level above as he watched. Owen was being deliberately antagonistic to the rest of the team and by this point, Jack had had enough.

"Owen, my office," he announced, making the younger man look up with a scowl of annoyance. "Now!" Jack barked and pointed his finger in the right direction. Owen gave a gusty sigh and marched off, looking like an errant schoolboy in trouble with the headmaster. Normally, it would have amused Jack, but he was all out of patience with Owen's antics. Jack made his way down the stairs two at a time, his boots barely touching the rungs before jumping down to the next. He swept past Gwen and Ianto who stood and watched as he followed Owen into his office and closed the door firmly.

Owen was sprawled on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling with a look of complete boredom on his face as Jack turned to look at him. Jack leaned against the door and crossed his arms, letting the silence lengthen. Owen began to twitch under Jack's stare. He shifted uncomfortably and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he looked down at the floor for a moment. One foot began tapping impatiently, waiting for Jack to reprimand him. When it didn't come, Owen looked up in Jack's direction, but looked away, unable to meet the other man's eyes. He slouched in his seat and crossed his arms, looking sullen.

"Oh, okay," he finally said, unable to take the waiting game any longer. "I know I'm being a prat. I'm sorry. Just slap me on the wrist and send me on my way like a bad little boy. I'll go do my penance, whatever it is."

"First of all, you're not Catholic," Jack pointed out. "And second of all, you should know better. These are your co-workers that you're being an arse to. These are the people who expect you to have their back, as they have yours. This is not the way to treat them." Jack finally moved away from the door and leaned on the edge of his desk, his hands braced against the surface as he loomed over Owen. "Look, I know why you feel like this. I understand. But Owen, Katie is gone. There's nothing either of us could have done. And she wouldn't have wanted you to get all maudlin this time of year just because she's gone. You're doing her a disservice."

Owen stared at Jack with a look of indignation on his face. "How the fuck do you know how I feel?" He spat out. "You may have a heart of stone, but some of us care deeply about the people we were attached to. We can't just turn around and walk away when they're gone. They'll be with us forever. That pain is with us… with me. I'm not going to deny it."

"I'm not telling you to," Jack said with a gentle and understanding expression on his face. "But you can't let your grief tear you apart like this. You know Katie wouldn't want that for you."

"What do you know about her?" Owen said, turning away with his shoulders hunched. " She loved Christmas, loved everything about the holiday. We were going to be married on Christmas Day. And you know why it didn't happen! And now I can't even think of that day without feeling the pain of what happened. You didn't even know her." Jack bit back a sigh and tried to be patient.

"You're right. I didn't know her," he admitted. "But I know you. And I know that if she loved you, she wouldn't want you to be like this." He reached out to touch Owen's shoulder but was shaken off.

"I don't need your sympathy," Owen spat out, his face averted. "You have no idea what is going on with me. You don't know what it's like to have someone ripped from you – someone you loved, and who loved you for what you are. What do you know? It's not like you have any family, after all. Or none that you've told us about. You just stay here in your little dungeon and keep your distance from the rest of humanity." He didn't care what Jack's reaction to his tirade was, but he would have been surprised by the look on the Captain's face if he had turned around while he was talking. Fortunately for Jack, he didn't. He was so locked into his own pain that he couldn't see when someone else was feeling pain of their own. "You know, I came here so I could get away from all the shit that's out there. I'm here for the work. Not for fucking celebration of a holiday no one gives a damn about!" He turned back, using his anger as a shield against his own pain. "It doesn't have a place here. We deal with aliens, not Santa Claus!"

By the time he had turned around, Jack had schooled his face to show none of the emotions that Owen's words had stirred up. He had pulled back and was leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed, carefully showing nothing in his expression.

"It can't be all work," Jack tried one last time to get Owen to see that his way of closing himself off and hitting out at others wasn't the route to go. "You need to relax occasionally. Why not celebrate Christmas, if that's what the others want to do?"

"Because it's a lie, Jack," Owen said sullenly. "Christmas is all about lies, and people fooling themselves that they're happy. They give each other gifts in the hopes of buying some love, or redemption for being an arse the rest of the year. Well, I'm done with it! I'm not having it! I hope I never have to look at another holiday ever again, because it's all full of damn lies! You all go do what you want, but count me out."

"All right," Jack said, losing his patience again. "Then you can take watch tonight while the rest of us go out for dinner. After all, it's not like you want to celebrate the holiday or anything." Owen opened his mouth to protest but closed it as Jack finished his comment. "Any objection?"

"No," Owen said. "I'd rather be in here with Myfanwy watching the rift than pretending to a holiday cheer I don't feel. Go ahead, be my guests." He turned away, trying to hide the hurt that he was being left behind. After all, it was what he wanted, wasn't it?

"Good, I'll tell the girls it's a reservation for four then," Jack said with a smile, not missing the flash of hurt on Owen's face. Frankly, he was sick of the other man and it would do him good to have a quiet night on his own where he might have to face his own thoughts without the help of alcohol or a woman to dull the pain. "We'll be leaving around 7, so the watch will be yours for the rest of the night."

"Fine," Owen said with a nod, accepting the punishment that Jack had given him. All in all, he had gotten off lightly. And it suited his mood to be alone. "That suits me just fine." He got up and headed out of the office without another word to Jack. Jack stared after him for a long moment before sighing and moving to sit at his desk. A short time later, Ianto came in with his afternoon coffee. He accepted it with a nod, smiling briefly as his fingers brushed the other man's in thanks. He told Ianto of their plans for the evening and that Owen would be minding the store while they were gone. Ianto nodded and left to tell the others.


	2. Chapter 2

As evening fell on the city of Cardiff, the girls got more excited about their evening out. Gwen and Tosh had put together some little presents to have for everyone, and they quickly bagged their wrapped packages as Jack and Ianto came into the main room to head out. Owen was in the autopsy room working on some experiment that he had been meaning to set up for some time but never had a moment to do it. He figured that with the others going out, it would give him all the time he needed to just concentrate without them bothering him.

"We're off," Gwen said at the entryway as she looked down the stairs to where he was concentrating on pouring something from a beaker into a vial of something that looked like blue smoke. "Have a good evening."

"Yeah, you too," Owen said absently, studiously ignoring the fact that she stood hesitating in the doorway, her wrap on around the festive dress she wore for their evening out. She stood for a moment, but when he didn't respond further, she sighed and turned to leave. Tosh looked up, hoping to give Owen his present, but when Gwen returned alone, she just turned away with a sigh.

"Ready?" Jack was wearing a new uniform with sparkly braces in honor of the celebration. Ianto was wearing one of his usual conservative suits, though he did have a light up Christmas tree pinned to one lapel. Gwen nodded.

"Yes, we're all set. Shall we?" She said with a bright smile, wanting to leave the dour feeling of being in the Hub with Owen behind her. Ianto offered her his elbow and she slipped her hand through it, her smile feeling a little more genuine with his gallantry.

"Toshiko?" Jack asked, holding out his hand. Tosh picked up the bag and started to head towards him before stopping abruptly.

"Just a minute!" She called as she turned in mid stride and walked over to Owen's station. Rummaging through the bag, she pulled a festive package out and left it on the desk. She paused for a moment to adjust the bow and smiled. "There, all set." She turned back towards Jack and he put his arm around her as he escorted her towards the invisible lift. The four crowded onto the pavement block and Jack pressed a button on his vortex manipulator.

"Going up," he announced. The lift started moving and the panel above them slid down and over to the left, letting a chilly breeze into the Hub. "Next stop, champagne, hors d'oeuvres and holiday cheer," he announced with a grin.

"Oooh, I'll take two," Gwen said with a smile.

"Two of what, the champagne or the holiday cheer?" Jack asked with a laugh as they came up to the street level. "Though with enough champagne, one can create a lot of holiday cheer!" They waited for a break in the people passing by, stepping out into the foot traffic without anyone noticing that they had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The two couples stepped into the night, off to enjoy their evening together.

Back underground, Owen kept up with his experiment, not even noticing the departure of the others. He wanted to just concentrate on work and nothing but work. He'd be happy if he didn't have to listen to stories about happy holidays and people's good cheer. It was all a bunch of rubbish, anyhow, he thought to himself.

Once he got his first experiment going, he moved onto another one. Then he went up to his console in the main area and logged in. He shifted some stuff on his desk, burying the little package that Tosh had left for him without noticing it. He leaned back with a happy sigh, thrilled beyond belief that he was on his own. No one to bug him, no one asking him how he felt, and no one that he had to watch out for. A loud squawk could be heard overhead and he amended his last thought. He definitely had to watch out for Myfanwy droppings. Once he had logged in his research info, he went off to play his video game for a while, happy that no one would complain about the loud noise as he shot down aliens.

Several hours later, he was playing basketball by himself. It wasn't as much fun without the others, and after a while he just let the ball bounce away as he wandered over to the kitchen to look into the fridge. Poking around, he found some old Chinese containers. He couldn't remember when they had Chinese last, but it couldn't be too bad, or Ianto would have dumped it. He opened one box and sniffed. Deciding it smelled okay, he grabbed a fork and began eating. He grabbed a beer out of the fridge and took a pull. Taking both over to the sofa, he sat down and enjoyed his meal, reflecting on how nice it was not to have to make conversation with his co-workers or listen to them go on about whatever inconsequential things were going on in their lives. He wrinkled his nose in distaste. Especially Gwen's. Bah, if he had to listen to one more story about that damn boyfriend of hers. He grimaced. It was enough to put someone into a diabetic coma, he thought.

After eating he dumped the empty bottle and the carton the floor next to where he was sitting, not caring that Ianto would have to pick it up later. He slouched on the sofa and checked his watch. He still had a few hours to go before his first experiment would show a response. Stretching, he let out a noisy yawn. Part of the reason why he had been so irritable this morning was because he hadn't had a lot of sleep. After pulling a long shift which was typical at Torchwood, he had gone home to listen to two of his neighbors arguing into the night. It was that domestic episode which had put him off, as he hadn't been able to sleep half the night, despite slamming his shoe against the ceiling several times. He sighed and slumped lower. Maybe it would be a good time to take a nap.

Within moments, he had drifted off to sleep, sprawled across the sofa, his head tilted to one side at an angle which was bound to give him some pain later when he awoke. He started to snore, making noises loud enough for Myfanwy to poke her beak out as she looked around for whatever strange creature her humans had dragged in this night. Tilting her head, she saw only the grumpy one on the sofa, so she pulled herself back into her cavern and curled up as she waited for the nice one to come back with a treat for her.

Other than Owen's snoring, the Hub was quiet; the whir of the machinery that kept it running was a muted sound in the background. Had anyone else been there to notice, they would have found the sight of a tall woman with dark hair approaching the slumbering man to be very odd indeed.

"Owen," a voice called. Owen frowned at the sound of his name, and muttered something incoherent. "Owen, wake up."

"No," he mumbled, swatting the air with his hand as he turned away from the sound of the voice and pressed his head against the cushions. "Go away."

"I'm not going anywhere, Owen," the voice said, calling his name again. It repeated until finally he jerked awake with a start. Blinking blearily, he checked his watch. Only a half hour had passed. He didn't know what had woken him, so he dropped his head back down and closed his eyes again.

"Owen," the voice called. His eyes sprang open in shock. He knew that voice. He used to hear it every day. But it was impossible! He sat up and turned, his eyes widening as he took in the figure seated next to him on the sofa.

"Suzie! What? How?" Owen spluttered. What he was seeing was not possible. Suzie was dead and resting in a vault a few hundred feet below where he was currently sitting. And she was quite dead.

"What, not happy to see me, Owen?" Her voice sounded raspy. No doubt from the entryway of the bullet hole in her chin where she had shot herself with the revolver. She was smiling at him, and Owen shuddered as he took in her dead eyes, her lank hair, and the bits of grey matter that still clung to her here and there. "I'm so disappointed. Is this a way to treat a former lover?"

"I…" Owen was, for the first time in his life, at a loss for words. They failed him. He didn't know how to respond to the question from a woman who was undoubtedly dead. "But how?"

"Come on, Owen," Suzie said in a derisive tone. "This is Torchwood! How can you ask how to anything that happens here?" She gestured to the area around her and he knew she had a point. She clapped her hands together. "Now pay attention."

He sat up a little straighter in response to her demand. "Pay attention to what?" He asked, still muddled by the deep sleep he had been in when she had so rudely awoken him.

"To what I'm about to tell you," Suzie said. "Owen, you've been a naughty boy," she said, waggling her finger. "What have you been up to here?" She looked around, noticing the decorations. "Ah," she said with a knowing nod. "I see."

Owen was starting to get irritated. Where did she get off coming in here, waking him up from a well deserved rest and berating him? "What the hell are you doing here, Suzie?" He asked, anger creeping into his tone.

"Shame on you, Owen," she chided him. "It's that sort of response that earned you this visit in the first place," she told him. "I'm here to start you on a journey."

Owen was openly annoyed now. "Suzie, what the hell are you on about? What response? What have I earned, other than a 'thank you for saving our arses yet again, Owen' and a 'we're so glad to have you here to fix us up when we're stupid, Owen'? And what journey? I'm not going anywhere!"

"Oh, but you are," she said with a ghastly smile. "Owen, you will end up a bitter old man if you stay on the path you are currently on."

Owen looked down and back up again. "What path? I'm not going anywhere! What are you on about, woman?" He asked, totally confused. "All right, that's it! I'm bonkers! I'm talking with an apparition of a dead woman and expecting it all to make sense."

"Well, that is stupid, isn't it, Owen?" Suzie asked in a reasonable tone. "But I'm not going away. Because I'm here to give you a message."

Owen gave up at this point at having any of it make sense. "All right, go ahead. Give me whatever lecture it is my subconscious is trying to tell me. I don't know why the heck it took the form of you, but go ahead and say whatever it is you have to say so you can take off and I can get back to sleep."

"Sure," Suzie said with a nod. She stood up and pointed a long, thin finger at Owen, so close to his face that the nail almost touched his nose. "Owen Harper, you are being judged by the scales of Justice! They currently find you wanting. But you will have a chance at redemption!"

"Oh, be still, my beating heart," Owen exclaimed sarcastically. "Oh wait, I can do that; you can't." He laughed harshly at his own joke. "Pray, go on, Ms. Costello! Bestow whatever wisdom my brain seems to think I need to heed!"

"Before this night is through, you will be shown the error of your ways," Suzie intoned in a serious voice. "You will be visited by three spirits. Each one has something important to show you, and each one will take you on a journey." She didn't seem to notice the way he rolled his eyes at her serious declaration.

"Oh yeah, I get it now. Sure, bring them on!" Owen said. He sat up and looked around. "Okay, where are they? " He stood up and looked around, but didn't see anyone other than Suzie. "Hello!" He shouted, his voice echoing in the Hub. The only response was the irritated rattle of Myfanwy's wings as she shifted in her cave high above him. "What? Not coming out to play? No? Well, bully you, then!" He said as he sat back down on the sofa, his arms crossed. "I'm not afraid of my own subconscious."

"You will be, Owen Harper," Suzie intoned as she stood up. "You will be." A moment later, she was gone and Owen was shaking his head.

"Oh great, she sounded like Yoda just then," he said in disgust. He rapped his own head with his knuckles. "Hello, brain? Stop it! I'm not going to listen, okay? So just give up now, because whatever it is you're thinking, it isn't going to work." Having announced that, he sat back and crossed his arms, scowling. When nothing happened, he got up and went to go check his experiments. They were still in progress and he sighed as he realized he had a few more hours to wait.

"Fine then," he announced to no one as he sat back down on the sofa. "I'm taking a nap! And I don't want to hear from anyone, okay? No ghosts, no ghouls, no things that go bump in the night! Okay? Fine!" He crossed his arms, stretched out his legs and sat belligerently for a long while until his eyes began to droop. Eventually, he fell asleep again, lulled into dreamland by the low rumble of the Hub's machinery.


	3. Chapter 3

"Owen," a voice called out his name. "Wake up, Owen." Owen shook his head, not wanting to wake up. "Owwweeeennnnn," the voice said in a sing song voice, stretching out his name. Owen frowned. After a long moment, the voice tried again, this time a bit more sharply. "Owen!"

Owen jerked awake with a start to see Jack standing before him. Jack looked different somehow. He was in full uniform; his hair looked shorter, well, what Owen could see of it under his RAF hat. "Jack?" He asked, his mind muddy from having his sleep interrupted again. "Thought you went out with the others," he mumbled.

"Now, now, Owen, it's Captain Jack to you," Jack said with a cheesy, matinee-idol grin. "And no sleeping on the job, soldier!" He said, his tone turning abrupt. Owen blinked and sat up straighter in reaction to the steely tone in Jack's voice. "That's better," Jack said with a nod as he began to pace back and forth in front of Owen. "Do you know why I'm here?"

"To make my life miserable?" Owen asked with a sigh. Jack shot him a look, expecting a real answer. "No, Jack, I don't. Last I knew, you had gone out with the others to have dinner."

"That's not the answer I want, soldier!" Jack said in that clipped military tone. "Do you know why I am here?" He barked out each word, practically biting each one off as he leaned in until he was nose to nose with Owen. "Answer me, son."

Owen stared at him, looking into the blue eyes of his boss and thinking that he really didn't know the man at all. "No, I don't know why you are here, Jack." He finally said.

"That's Captain Jack Harkness, to you," Jack replied, not liking the tone of the doctor's voice. "Well, I'm about to remind you soldier as to why I am here, since obviously you weren't paying attention earlier. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Owen muttered to himself. "I am so not doing this."

"Oh, yes you are," Captain Jack said. He stood up to his full height and stared down at Owen. "Stand up."

"No!" Owen said, not willing to give into his own subconscious. "I'm not moving a muscle."

"Stand up, before I make you stand up," Captain Jack said, fast losing patience with the other man. He lifted his wrist, exposing a leather wrist strap. "Don't make me use this," he said in a warning tone.

Owen crossed his arms, determined to be stubborn. "No."

"All right, we do this the hard way, then," Captain Jack said. He held up his wrist and when Owen didn't move, he pressed a button. There was a flash of light and a moment later, Jack and Owen were standing on the Plass above the Hub. Owen blinked.

"That is so not fair," Owen complained. Captain Jack chuckled.

"Life isn't fair, Owen," the Captain said with a smile. "Come with me." Jack stepped off the flagstone for the invisible lift and Owen found himself following, unable to stop himself from doing so. He scowled as he trailed after Captain Jack's long strides.

"All right, so you're the Ghost of Fucking Christmas Past," Owen muttered, figuring it was better to just go along with it since he really didn't have much of a choice in the matter. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to your past, Owen Harper," Captain Jack intoned in a serious voice which made Owen roll his eyes in response. "To look at what made you who you are today."

"Oh, lovely. Please tell me that you're not taking me to see my mother," Owen said in a pained voice. "I don't want to see her."

"Hush," Captain Jack said as they approached the railing to the Bay. "I need to concentrate."

"Lovely," Owen said in disgust. Captain Jack just gave him a look and he subsided. The Captain fiddled with his wrist strap and there was another flash of light. The next moment, Owen found himself in a house that was all too familiar to him. He looked around, his mouth hanging open. It was, and yet it wasn't the house he grew up in. "Where are we?" He asked, his voice suspicious.

"This is your childhood home," Captain Jack said. He gestured with one hand for Owen to go through the door at the end of the hallway. Owen started to move without realizing it, walking through the hallway that was swathed in garland, with holly berries and Poinsettia flowers dotted in places along the walls. He stopped short as he reached the doorway and looked inside.

The scene inside was one he could never remember seeing in all the years he had lived there. Not that he had spent much time at home once he had reached school age, as his mother had packed him off to Chiltenham Academy. He vaguely remembered his early years at home, but had no memories of the scene before him.

In the middle of the front parlor there was one of the largest Christmas trees he had ever seen. It shimmered with lights, garland and festive ornaments which twinkled in the dim light. Stockings hung from the mantle off to the side, where a fire was merrily blazing in the hearth. Off to one side on a small table was a glass of milk and cookies, and it was obvious that Santa had been there as there was a bite taken out of one of the cookies and the milk was half gone. Owen turned to Captain Jack with an amazed look on his face.

"It was never like this," he said to the man beside him. Captain Jack just smiled and turned away from the doorway. Owen's jaw dropped. Coming down the stairs was a tow-headed little boy, tugging on the hand of a young woman who was laughing as he urged her to move faster.

"Owen, it's too early!" She cried as she wrapped her dressing gown around her more securely. "Please let me go back to sleep!"

"But Mummy, I heard the sleigh! Santa's already been here!" The little boy cried as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He practically danced with excitement and Captain Jack looked on the scene with an indulgent smile on his face. Owen blinked. He knew that was him as a little boy, but he didn't remember ever seeing his mother looking so carefree in his life. Her hair had escaped the braid she had done it up in, and wisps curled around her face. "Papa! Come!" Young Owen cried, and his adult self gasped softly as a man started coming down the stairs, tying the belt of his robe around his waist.

"Not to fear, son," the man said with a chuckle. "The presents will still be there when we get down."

"It can't be," Owen said in disbelief. His barely remembered father was just a vague memory. His father had died when he was just a little boy. He stared as the man reached the bottom of the stairs and bent down to pick up the boy. Swinging him over his head, little Owen giggled as his father carried him down the hallway and into the parlor. Adult Owen stared in shock as the two walked right through him and into the room. "That's…"

"That's your father," Captain Jack said with a nod. "And your mother," he said with a smile as the young woman followed her husband and son into the parlor where she sat down on an overstuffed chair by the fireplace.

"This never happened," Owen said. "This isn't real." He stared hungrily at the scene as little Owen cried out as he spied all the presents under the tree. His father laughed and set him down, kneeling on the floor beside his son as the little boy marveled at the brightly wrapped presents.

"Oh, it did," Captain Jack said with a nod. "This is from your past." He watched as the two heads leaned together as they discussed which present to open first. Once that strategic discussion had happened, little Owen reached out and picked one, which he began to unwrap, his face lit up by a smile.

"How come I don't remember any of this?" Owen asked, still suspicious. He would have remembered something like this, he knew he would.

"Because you didn't want to remember," Captain Jack said in a serious tone, with a glance at the man by his side. He turned his attention back to the scene in the parlor. Little Owen had unwrapped a toy truck and was crowing with delight, making noises as he moved it along the carpet. His mother sat back and watched with a smile on her face as son and father played together on the floor by her feet.

"Come, it's time to go," Captain Jack said. Owen tried to protest, since he really wanted to see more, but Captain Jack was already tugging on his arm and drawing him away. "Come along, places to go, after all."

Owen stared back at the happy scene, a hungry look on his face. He wanted to remember it, but couldn't. As he was pulled away by Captain Jack, he wondered to himself if this was just a fabrication – a wish fulfillment by his own mind, and not something that had really happened. There was another flash of light and the scene changed, though he still recognized it as the house had he grown up in.

In this scene, his family was seated for dinner. His father stood at the head of the table, laughing as he carved the biggest turkey that Owen had ever seen. He recognized various aunts, uncles and cousins, all laughing as they enjoyed a Christmas feast together. He turned, looking to see where his younger self was. When he found little Owen, his jaw dropped.

Little Owen was seated in his mother's lap, and she was feeding him off her plate. He giggled and smiled up at her and the mother he barely remembered as her smiled back down at her son. This was his family as he had never seen them. Sure, he remembered his relatives, but he never remembered them like this. The scene was something out of a dream, with a table full of sweets and good food, laughter and joy. It seemed so foreign to him.

"Did this really happen?" He asked Captain Jack who turned from the scene with a smile on his face and nodded. "How come I don't remember?"

"Because you chose not to," Captain Jack told him. "You closed off your heart, thinking that to remember scenes like this would be too painful. But had you kept them close to your heart and acknowledged them, you would have been much happier growing up."

"Mother was never this happy," Owen said in a stony tone as he looked at the happy scene. "Not once father was gone."

"No," Captain Jack said with a nod. "Her joy in the world left her with your father. And I'm sorry that you had to bear the brunt of that as a young boy. But she did love you, very much. She just was afraid to show it later, because she was so afraid of losing you as well."

"She did lose me in the end," Owen said sadly as he observed the happy scene. "She pushed me away."

"Because she loved you too fiercely, and it scared her," Captain Jack said. "Once your father was gone, she was afraid, so she showed her love in different ways." Owen gave a harsh laugh at his comment.

"Oh, yeah, she loved me so much, she sent me away to boarding school. She couldn't wait to get me out of the house," Owen said bitterly. "Never wanted me to come home for Christmas, so I ended up staying with the Headmaster's family, and even then, got shunted off to one of the other professors when the Head didn't want me, either. She didn't want me."

"She did," Captain Jack told the doctor. "She sent you to school so you could have the best possible education. "

"I was in and out of one boarding school to the next," Owen retorted, still feeling the hurt of being shunted hither and yon by a mother who seemed to be indifferent to her own child. It made him closed off, and as he got older, it made him want to avoid close contact with others.

"Come, we have another place to go," Captain Jack said. Owen opened his mouth to protest – to say that he didn't want to go anywhere else, but Jack grabbed his wrist and with a press of a button they were gone from the house in a flash of light.

Owen blinked. They were still in the house, but this time in the front parlor. His mother, looking more like what he remembered from his younger years was sitting in one of the French Provincial chairs, her thin shoulders hunched as she read a letter. Owen moved around behind her chair and looked over her shoulder. It was a letter from one of the many boarding schools he had been to over the years, and in fact it was the last one he had attended.

"_Dear Mrs. Harper,_

_It is with the sincerest regret that we inform you that due to his own actions, your son is no longer welcome at our establishment. His attitude and deportment is what we consider severely lacking in self discipline and in interpersonal skills. While his grades are as usual excellent, it is clear that he does not fit with the vision of our esteemed institution. _

_We would advise you to seek another placement for Owen. Perhaps a military school would be a good option for someone whose temperament needs adjusting. _

_Your faithful servant,_

_Headmaster Noel Jacobs_

_Sleighton Academy"_

Owen's mother sighed and folded the letter. Then she reached over to the table by her chair and picked up a bell to ring. A moment later, a maid came into the room and curtsied. Mrs. Harper nodded to her.

"Elsie, please go to my son's room and pack his bags. Then bring them down here to me in the parlor," she said. "Could you also ask Cook to bring me a spot of tea as well?"

"Yes, ma'am," the young girl said, her eyes downcast as she curtsied and left the room. Owen stood in shock. He remembered the scene to come only too vividly. He watched in silence as Cook came in with a tea setting which she set on the table, pouring a cup for Owen's mother. A short while later, the maid returned, making several trips to bring all of the bags down to the parlor.

"Thank you, Elsie," Mrs. Harper said, her tone gracious. "Could you please ask my son to attend me?" She didn't wait for an acknowledgement but got up and turned to a small lady's desk that stood off to one side. It was the type of desk where a well bred woman would send notes to her friends, or write other correspondence. Mrs. Harper opened a drawer, pulled out a book and opened it. Tearing off a cheque, she wrote something in it and then put it in an envelope. She carefully and very deliberately creased the edge of the folded envelope to hold it closed, then stood and waited, the bags near her feet.

"I don't need to see this," Owen said, turning away. "Let's go back to the Hub." Captain Jack glanced at him, but said nothing, his arms crossed as they waited in silence. All that could be heard was the ticking of the grandfather clock out in the hallway. Owen paced, the wait grating on his nerves.

A few moments later, the maid returned, a young and rather sullen looking sixteen-year-old Owen in tow. The adult Owen scowled, knowing what was to come.

"Mother, what is this?" Teenage Owen asked as he recognized the packed bags at her feet. They were what he used to go back and forth to school. He was in the middle of his summer break, and had been working on a science experiment in the hot house. He was irritated that he had been summoned by his mother.

"These," his mother said with a gesture towards the bags, "are your things. You are sixteen, and in some places that is considered manhood. Since you insist in acting in a manner which is socially unacceptable to others, you are no longer welcome here in my home."

The teenaged Owen's face was frozen in shock. "What? What did you say?" His mother brandished the letter and explained that he had been expelled from the school for his behavior.

"Owen, I warned you that this was the last time. Yet once again, you disappoint me. Well, no longer. If you want to act out, you can do so on your own, without my help. I'm asking you to leave," she told him. The adult Owen watched his face set in a stony mask as he was forced to observe the scene.

"But mother, where would I go?" The younger Owen cried. "I'm not yet done with my schooling."

"I think you are," she declared. "Here," she said, holding out the envelope. He took it without understanding what it was. "I am giving you a stipend, and money will be deposited for your education should you wish to pursue something else to your own liking, since it is obvious that the course of study I had chosen is not what you would like to do. You are on your own, as you wish to be, since obviously by your actions you choose not to study as you should."

"But Mother," Owen cried, still in shock. His mother had been turning away from him when she paused.

"Owen, I don't understand you. I really don't. I love you as a son, but I don't like you as a person. I don't like what you've become. So you are on your own," she turned away from him. "Please leave."

A moment later, a step was heard in the hallway and the chauffer stepped in through the door. Owen's mother instructed Jeffries to take Owen to London and to drop him off there, where he could learn to fend for himself. The man nodded and led the shocked teenager out of the room, the maid carrying the bags behind them. A few moments later, a car engine started and the sound of a car moving away could be heard.

Owen stared at his mother, seeing a woman who was wan and tired. And obviously at her wit's end. She turned back to the room once it was quiet and sat down in the chair. With only the sound of the clock ticking in the background, she stared out the window into the early evening light.

"Yeah? Well, she was wrong," Owen said, biting his lip before he let himself say more that he would regret. He turned away from the scene before him, but not without one last hungry look at his mother. "I don't want to remember this. Take me away from here."

"If you wish," Captain Jack said with a nod. He grasped Owen's arm and with a touch of the button, there was a flash and they were back at the Hub. Owen staggered slightly, feeling a bit disoriented. He pulled away from Captain Jack and sat down on the sofa, not at all impressed by the experience his subconscious had given him. The last scene had really bothered him and he scowled as he thought of reliving that event again. It helped him feel a bit better to turn his thoughts away from what he had seen and to put that veneer of callous disregard back on as a shield.

"Hey Jack," he called out to the man who was standing before him. "Let's cut through all the rest of the shit and tell the others not to bother. I don't want to go through another chapter of 'This is Your Life,' thanks," Owen said.

"You can't stop this," Captain Jack said with a wag of his finger. "You will be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future. They will come, and show you what is, and what is yet to be." He ignored Owen's rolling of his eyes and gusty sigh. "It is important that you listen to them, as they have something important to show you as well."

"I'm never going to get a decent night's sleep, am I?" Owen asked grumpily. Captain Jack just smiled at him and touched a button on his wrist strap. A moment later, he was gone, leaving Owen by himself.


	4. Chapter 4

Owen rested his head against the back of the sofa. "I have to be hallucinating. Maybe it was something in the Chinese that had gone off, and this is actually food poisoning affecting my brain. Yeah, that's a possibility. Don't know how long that stuff was in there. Maybe Ianto hadn't gotten a chance to dump it, and I actually poisoned myself," he mused. Then he shrugged. "It's as good an explanation as any other," he said. "Look at me! I'm talking to myself!" He said in disgust.

With a shake of his head he stretched out on the sofa, determined to get some sleep before the alarm went off that would signify that his first experiment was ready for the next stage. He also promised himself that he would not wake up for another of these apparitions. His goal was to ignore any other interruptions, and he sternly informed his brain not to send any more delusions because he wasn't going to listen. After shifting about on the lumpy sofa for a bit, he finally settled down and put the thoughts of what Captain Jack had shown him out of his mind. He drifted back off into dreamland, not exactly experiencing the sleep of the just, but of the mortally exhausted.

"Owen," a voice called out. Owen twitched where he was curled up on the sofa, but he didn't stir. "Come on Owen, wake up," the voice said, calling his name again. Owen's face scrunched down into a frown as he tried to ignore the insistent calling of his name. Eventually, he was shaken awake and he blearily blinked his eyes open to look at Jack looking down at him.

"What time is it?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes. Had he slept through the night? If so, he hadn't heard the alarms go off when Jack returned. He pushed up off of the seat and shoved himself upright.

"Time is meaningless," Jack said as he stepped back. Owen blinked at him.

"What are you on about?" Owen asked as he rubbed his eyes. He checked his watch and blinked. Then he rubbed his eyes again. Barely an hour had passed. "Jack, I thought you went out with the others. What are you doing back so soon?"

"I'm not who you think I am," Jack said as he stood with his arms crossed in a very Jack-like pose. He was wearing his usual outfit of dark trousers and blue shirt, though instead of the braces, he had one of his waistcoats on with a pocket watch tucked into it, the chain trailing off to his belt.

"All right, if you're not Fucking Jack Harkness, who the hell are you?" Owen snapped, irritated that his sleep had been interrupted yet again.

"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present," Jack intoned in a serious voice.

"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me," Owen said in disgust. He rapped his knuckles against his head. "Hello, brain? I thought we had an agreement. You would let me sleep, and I wouldn't bother you for the rest of the night. You reneged on that agreement!"

Jack stared at him and waited patiently. Owen stared back. It was a stalemate, with neither one wanting to give in. Owen twitched first.

"Okay, how come you're Jack each time?" Owen finally asked, giving in to the inevitable.

"Well, I have been in the past, I'm certainly in the present and I come from the future, so who else would be qualified to take you on this journey?" Jack asked with a grin. Owen sighed as he saw the logic in what Jack said. "Come with me, Owen," Jack said, holding out his hand.

"Do I have to?" Owen whined. Jack just stood there smiling and waiting for him. After a long moment, Owen sighed. "You're not going away, are you?"

"Nope," Jack said with a grin. "Come along, don't dawdle."

Owen pushed himself off the sofa with a grunt. "I am so not looking forward to this," he muttered. "Whatever it is, can't we just say you showed me and I learned something meaningful so I can just go back to sleep?"

"No," Jack said as he took Owen's hand. "This is necessary." He stretched out his arm and peered at his vortex manipulator.

"So is a root canal, it doesn't mean I have to like it," Owen replied with a sigh. "In fact, a root canal would be preferable to self examination, I think." Jack chuckled at his reply. He felt more comfortable around this Jack. He wasn't so standoffish as the other one, who had acted with more military precision than the man he remembered. He submitted to the inevitable as Jack released him briefly to poke at a button before grabbing his wrist again. With a flash of light, they were gone.

Their first stop was a busy street in Cardiff. They were in the middle of the market area, where people of all sorts were rushing about in their daily business of shopping. Jack smiled as he watched the hustle and bustle of the people around them. Owen sighed and looked around with disinterest. The unwashed masses in all their glory, he thought glumly.

"All right, let's get on with it. What edifying experience am I supposed to have here?" He finally asked. Jack looked over at him and arched an eyebrow.

"Can't you at least pretend to get something out of this?" Jack complained. Owen gave him a bland look and Jack shook his head. "All right, we'll move on. But look about you," Jack said with a sweep of his arm. Owen couldn't help but look at the people as they ran hither and yon with brightly color packages in their hands. Then he led the way out of the busy intersection and into a small shop on the corner. Owen stepped inside to the welcoming heat and rubbed his arms. Damn, his subconscious was even providing temperature changes! He shivered as he stood in the doorway.

The shop was one of the typical ones that catered to the locals. Its shelves were stocked high with items that the Welsh residents would want for the holiday, and business was brisk. No matter who walked through the door, the old man who was the proprietor had a ready smile and a kind word for each, even if they didn't buy anything in the end. Owen stood off to the side, watching, but not understanding why they were here.

"So?" He asked with a shrug. "What is so special about this place?"

"This place has been here for generations, with Mr. Adams there just one in a long line of descendents who have owned and operated this shop," Jack said. "I knew his great, great grandfather, actually. Nice chap, just like him, with a kind word for anyone."

"So?" Owen asked again.

"So," Jack replied, stifling a sigh at Owen's inability to understand the message of their visit. "This is present day life in Cardiff. This establishment here has been running for years, right on top of the rift, and it hasn't changed at all. Oh yeah, the faces change, but the place doesn't." Jack took a deep breath and smiled. "Smell that? That is the smell of the products of Wales. Good food, friendly people, and a lot of holiday cheer," he said as he watched the old man offer a cup of mulled cider to one shopper. "And Mr. Adams does a good business here. Why? Because he's friendly, he has fair prices, and he's local. He doesn't let the world around him affect his views, and he had a wide circle of friends, all who come to visit him here. It's a good life, even if he does go home alone. Well, not completely alone," Jack said with a nod towards a small Jack Russell terrier that was curled up in a basket by the register. "He has his faithful friend with him at night and a wealth of friends during the day."

"So what does this have to do with me?" Owen asked irritably. Jack sighed. Owen wasn't getting it. Time for another location.

"Fine, let's go elsewhere," Jack said. He lifted his wrist, poked at a button and grasped Owen's hand. With a flash, they were gone and reappeared a moment later in a tenement somewhere in Splott.

Owen wrinkled his nose at the smell. "Gah! What is that?" He grimaced, almost tasting the smell as he took in the refuse piled up by their feet.

"This is how the not so fortunate half lives," Jack said, looking around for a moment before heading away from Owen towards a door at the end of the hallway. Not wanting to be left behind, Owen fell into step behind him, though he breathed through his mouth as he stepped over a man sleeping in the hallway. He looked back over his shoulder to see that the man was curled around a half empty bottle of liquor. Owen shook his head in disgust. When he looked back, Jack was opening the door to someone's flat and stepping through. Owen hesitated in the open doorway, but came when Jack beckoned.

Inside, Owen found that the flat was in better shape than the hallway. He was grateful when Jack closed the door, because it minimized the smell. He looked around. Candles were lit, providing a warm glow in the room. In one corner, a small tree stood. It was artificial and had obviously seen better days. Most of the needles had fallen off some of the branches and they stuck out from the tree like spindly fingers. There were no lights, and as Owen peered closely, he realized that the candles were both for illumination and odor elimination as there was no electricity in the tiny flat. The ornaments on the tree were all handmade with strings of popcorn as garland, paper chains as decorations and a few childish stars made out of paper. Owen turned as the sound of footsteps approaching from the next room brought a young woman into view with a tiny boy in her arms.

"Mama, I'm cold," the little boy said. The woman smiled down at him and wrapped her sweater around them both as she sat on a dilapidated old rocking chair that was the only bit of furniture in the room.

"I know, hon," she said as they snuggled down on the rocker. She pulled an old crocheted afghan off the back and draped it around herself before wrapping the ends around the little boy. "There, how's that? Better?" The little boy nodded and she smiled down at him.

"Mama, can you tell me a Christmas story?" The little boy asked.

"Of course I can, honey," she replied, the lilt of her Welsh accent making Jack smile. She proceeded to tell a story about Santa Claus and how he would go around the world brining cheer and joy to children everywhere. The child watched her with large dark eyes, the joy evident on his face as he listened to her tale. Owen noticed that her story didn't mention gifts at all. Probably because she couldn't afford them, he realized.

"Do you think he'll come here?" The boy asked hopefully. The woman smiled down at him.

"Of course he will," she said, caressing his face with her finger. "Santa can go anywhere he wants. And when we wake up Christmas morning, it will be to find he left us love, joy and hope for the New Year." The young boy smiled up at his mother.

"I'm happy already," the boy confided in his mother. "Because we have each other. I love you, Mama!" He stood up and wrapped his thin arms around her neck to give her a hug. Owen frowned when he saw how malnourished the boy was. His arms and legs were stick thin, and his belly had that typical bloat of a child that didn't get enough food.

"He's going to starve, isn't he?" Owen asked. Jack smiled sadly, and nodded. "Can't someone help them? Aren't there services that do that kind of thing?"

"They've sort of fallen through the cracks of the system," Jack said as the little boy sat back down again and his mother began singing a song. "There's a lot of people like that here in the city. People who get overlooked and who don't have anyone to speak out for them. They make do as they can, sometimes with the help of others, like Mr. Adams. Or they perish."

"That's terrible," Owen said, the scene pulling on his heartstrings despite his attempt to not let that happen. "Can't she work?"

"She does," Jack said with a nod. "That's how she can afford such a good place." He saw Owen's look of astonishment at his words. "When the alternative is an alley somewhere, this is what she would consider luxury."

"This is a luxury?" Owen spluttered. "Barely a roof over one's head and no electricity or food? That is so sad." He looked back at the woman and boy who were smiling at one another. "Yet they're happy. Why?"

"Why? Because they are alive," Jack said as he turned to look at the two. "And they have each other. And that's all they need." He waited a beat or two for Owen to absorb the scene a little more before continuing. "Time's a wasting, we need to go."

"But…" Owen said as Jack touched his hand. "Can't we do anything for them?" Sadly, Jack shook his head.

"We're not really here, and this is only one example amongst thousands," he said as he reached for his wrist strap to take them to their next destination.

"Then why show me this?" Owen asked, feeling the despair of Jack's words wash over him. He had forgotten to remind himself that this was all in his own imagination as he had begun to believe that what he was seeing was real.

"So you will know that even with very little, people can be happy," Jack said, looking up from where he had been examining his vortex manipulator.

"Even as they could be dying?" Owen asked.

"Even then," Jack said with a nod. With the touch of his finger, he activated the jump. Grabbing hold of Owen's hand, they disappeared from the room with a flash of light.

They reappeared in a restaurant. Decorations were up, lights shone brightly and a huge Christmas tree was standing in the middle of the room. People laughed as they celebrated with good holiday cheer. Owen turned around in a circle, his mouth hanging open. It was such a contrast to the room they had just left that he felt disgusted with the opulence. Jack watched as a waiter cleared off a nearby table, most of the plates still full of food. Owen stared after the man, knowing that the food that would be dumped in the back could have probably fed that mother and child for a week. He turned to Jack and shook his head.

"Come with me," Jack said. He threaded his way through the tables to a small alcove off to one side. It faced the waterfront, and was relatively secluded from the rest of the people in the room. At the table sat his co-workers. He did a double take as he saw another Jack seated at the table, seemingly oblivious to their arrival. Next to him sat Ianto, Jack's arm draped across the back of his chair. Across from the two men, Gwen and Toshiko sat. Both women were smiling at something Jack was saying to them. Owen approached the table slowly. In the middle of the table was a plate with a few crumbs from what had obviously been a shared dessert. The four sat with their coffee, looking at ease with one another. Owen felt a bit left out of their easy camaraderie.

"Jack, I don't believe that for one moment," Gwen announced with a laugh. "That couldn't possibly be true!"

"Do you doubt me, Gwen?" Jack asked with a pout. "I'm hurt!" Ianto and Tosh laughed and eventually Jack grinned. "Okay, maybe I stretched the truth a little."

"Try a lot," Ianto interjected and Jack elbowed him with a laugh.

"So," Tosh said. She leaned her chin in her hand as her elbow rested against the table. "What's everyone's plans for tomorrow?"

"Well, Rhys and I get to go over to his parents for the day," Gwen said with a roll of her eyes. "That should be a load of fun."

"What, sizing up potential in-laws?" Jack teased and Gwen stuck her tongue out at him, which elicited a laugh. "Is it that onerous an experience?"

"No, not particularly," she admitted. "I quite like his family. But once Rhys and his dad sit down in front of the telly, there's no getting those two moving again." She looked over at Tosh. "What about you? Do you celebrate the holiday?"

"We do," Tosh said with a nod. "Even though I grew up in Japan, my parents were very keen for us to experience all sorts of different cultures. So I'll go home to my mother and we'll visit my grandfather together. It will be nice," she said, ducking her head and looking down. It was the most she had said about her family to the others, and she felt a bit vulnerable, despite being amongst friends. "What about you, Ianto?"

"I'll be manning the Hub with Jack," Ianto said with a smile. "The rift is never quiet, especially with Santa flitting about setting off all the alarms."

"Jack, you're not making him work tomorrow, are you?" Gwen asked in surprise. Jack held up his hands, fending her off.

"Hey, he volunteered!" Jack protested. "I'm not the ogre you think I am!"

"It's all right, Gwen," Ianto said with a smile. "I don't have any family nearby, so it's not a problem." Gwen looked at him sympathetically and he glanced down at his coffee.

"Well, if you don't want to work, you're always welcome to join Rhys and me. I can't promise much more than a good meal, a lot of loud talking, a few arguments as the boys try to one up one another with an afternoon football match in the back yard, but we'd love to have you if you want to," Gwen offered. Ianto smiled at her and politely declined.

Owen turned to the Jack by his side as the conversation continued, the four showing a close knit bond that he hadn't noticed before. Jack was smiling at the table.

"So what's this?" He finally asked the man by his side.

"This is what you are missing," Jack told him. "People who are taking the time to get to know one another, and to share more than just work. Companionship. Friendship." Owen turned back to the table and listened for a few more minutes. He had to admit that he wished he had gone with the others. But he had been so caught up in his own anger that he had pushed everyone else away. He sighed and turned away, feeling a bit bereft.

"Ready to go?" Jack asked. Owen nodded and held out his hand. Jack didn't say anything else, but he saw that Owen glanced back wistfully at the group. Jack touched a button and they were off, returning back to the Hub.

"So," Owen said. "I suppose I could say I learned something," he said as he sat back down on the sofa. Jack rocked back and forth on his heels as he waited for Owen to continue. Owen felt like a school boy having to recite a lesson plan. He continued in a mocking thoughtful tone. "I learned that no matter what, that one can be happy despite their lot in life. Even if it means that Ianto has to work the holiday with you," he ended with a grin.

Jack smiled but said nothing. Owen seemed to think that working the holiday was some form of punishment, though it had been obvious that Ianto hadn't seen it that way. "And?"

Owen looked at the Jack before him for a long moment. "Oh, there's supposed to be a life lesson in there for me, as well, right?" He sat back and crossed his ankle over his knee and clasped his hands behind his neck as he thought. "I guess the life lesson is that by being a grouch I am missing out on the lovely companionship of my co-workers, and if I wasn't so much of a prat, I would be included in their little reindeer games." Jack frowned at his sarcastic comment, but said nothing. "Did I get it right, teacher?"

"No," Jack said with a shake of his head. "You didn't." He crossed his arms and looked at Owen with a stern expression on his face. "You're speaking the words, but you're not getting it. I wonder why I bother?" Jack said to the air, not looking at the doctor. "Well, perhaps the next one can show you exactly what you're missing."

"Yeah, okay, whatever," Owen said, showing a veneer of disregard for what had happened, though he had been affected by what he had seen. He just wasn't ready to admit it, either to himself or to this apparition of Jack. "Send the next one in and let's get this over so I can make get some sleep."

Jack sighed. "All right then." With a touch of his wrist strap, he disappeared in a flash of light. Owen waited a few minutes, thinking that the next one would show up right away. When he didn't, Owen sighed.

"I know, brain. You're waiting for me to go asleep so you can piss me off by waking me up again, right?" Owen said in disgust. "Fine. We'll play it your way, so we can be done with this farce." Owen shifted on the sofa so that he could lie down along its length. He rolled onto his side so he was facing the inside of the Hub. He closed his eyes, but could feel himself waiting. All that could be heard was the hum of the machinery around him. Even Myfanwy was quiet. He sighed. Sleep seemed far away at the moment. His mind kept on going over what Jack had showed him, trying to make sense out of how his subconscious could have come up with these examples. He came up with a blank, since he had never been to the locations that Jack had taken him. He kept on going around in circles in his mind until finally he drifted off into a fitful sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey Owen! What are you doing sleeping? We've got places to go and people to do.. er.. see," a familiar voice called out, pulling him out of his dreams. When he opened his eyes, he was on his back and looking up at an upside down Jack, who was leaning over the arm of the sofa and looking at him. He blinked. This Jack was different.

As Owen looked up at him, he saw that this Jack looked younger, more carefree than he had ever seen him. His hair was a lot shorter and seemed blacker than his usual brown. "Jack?" He asked, feeling groggy and confused.

"Sorta," Jack said. He sat down in Owen's chair and started spinning around in circles. Owen sat up and turned to look at the other man. This Jack was wearing leather trousers, a white undershirt and a black leather vest.

"What is that you're wearing? You on the pull or something?" Owen asked as he took in how Jack was dressed. Jack put his foot down on the floor and abruptly stopped his spinning motion. He leaned his chin on the back of the chair and looked at Owen with an impish smile on his face.

"Why, you interested?" He asked. Owen only snorted, and when Jack didn't get a further response, he began spinning around again in the chair.

"Jack what are you doing?" Owen finally asked, as Jack's spinning was making him dizzy.

"Waiting," Jack said. "And I'm not Jack. Well, not your Jack, anyway. I am a Jack. Jack of all trades, actually." He said with a bit of a maniacal giggle that had Owen a little worried.

"So if you're not Jack, who are you?" Owen finally asked, thinking he knew the answer but asking anyhow. Jack put his foot back down, stopping his motion again.

"Why Owen, I'm surprised. I'd have thought you would have figured it out by now," Jack chided him. "I am the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come."

"I am not even touching that one," Owen said, knowing that Jack was just waiting for him to say something so he could smirk at a double entendre or two.

"Your loss," Jack said as he grinned. "Maybe if you touched someone a little more, you wouldn't be such an arse."

"Ouch!" Owen said as he placed a hand over his heart. "My subconscious is now going for the low blows. And, I may add, I touch a lot," he said, referring to all the women that he had pulled in the past.

Jack shook his head. "Ah, but there's touching, and then there's…" Jack pushed off with his foot so that the chair rolled over in Owen's direction. He stopped when they were nose to nose. "_Touching_."

Owen nodded. "I get on well enough with the touching I do, thanks." Jack shook his head. "I don't?"

"No, you don't. Because you don't _feel,_"Jack said. "You go through the motions, but not the emotions."

Owen sighed and looked away. He was not really interested in whatever this Jack, or his subconscious was going to tell him. "Yeah, right. Touching and _'touching.' _I get it. Can we get this over with, so I can get some decent sleep before the real Jack comes back and makes me do something else that's really stupid?" Owen asked petulantly. This modern Jack stared at him for a long moment before sighing.

"All right, let's lock and load," he said as he pushed back and stood up. "Come on, Owen. You want to get this over with. So let's go," he said, gesturing with his hand for Owen to stand up. Owen did, feeling various aches and pains from a rather uncomfortable night in the Hub. He moved over to where Jack stood.

"Fine," he said with a resigned sigh. Jack only glanced at him as he looked at his vortex manipulator. "I know the drill. Let's go to whatever edifying experience you're going to show me."

"Okay, first stop, the future," Jack announced. He hooked his arm in Owen's and pressed the button. With a flash, they were off.

They landed in a new place and both men staggered. "Whoops! Sorry about that!" Jack said with a laugh as he steadied Owen. "Had this souped up by the Doctor and it's a little unsteady," he said with a grin. "Need to find some time to tweak that," he commented to himself as if making a mental note.

They seemed to be in some sort of warehouse. Owen grimaced as he caught some sort of smell that was about ten times worse than the tenement hallway had been. "Gah," he said as he made a face. Jack looked at him for a moment and held a finger to his lips. Owen instinctively stopped moving, although a moment later when he started to think about it, he realized that whomever was there couldn't possibly hear them if this visit matched the others. Jack walked through a doorway covered in plastic. Owen followed him and a moment later they were in an office. Two men were crouched down and pulling wads of cash out a safe. As soon as the duffel bag was full, the first guy grabbed it and headed towards the door. Just as he reached it the door was kicked open and the man stared in shock. Owen was right beside him and Jack was amused to see that they had similar expressions. Ianto marched in and zapped the man with a stun gun, not even turning to watch the man fall as he moved over to where the other one was crouched down on the floor. The man reached for a gun that had been left on the table but Ianto kicked it out of his hand. Owen moved to stand beside him and he was staring at Ianto's face with his mouth open. The man on the floor struggled to sit up and Ianto placed the stun gun against his head and spoke.

"Pray they survive," he said in a low voice as he zapped the second man. Looking around and seeing both men out cold, he moved onwards. Ianto slipped through the door, gave a quick look around and started making his way down the narrow passageway, Owen following behind him to see what was going on. It looked like a meat processing plant, and Owen saw large slabs of something unidentifiable hanging from hooks that he hadn't noticed before.

Owen gasped in shock and looked at the future Jack who stood against the doorframe, watching the scene calmly. "What the hell is Ianto doing in a field operation? He's a desk jockey! He doesn't leave the Hub!"

"Apparently he does in the future," future Jack said with a shrug. "I don't know, but he looks damned sexy as a field operative," he said with a grin. Owen sighed and turned back to the scene. Ianto had disappeared through the door at the end of the hallway.

"Are the others here? What did Ianto mean about them surviving? Are the others hurt and he had to leave the Hub to come help with a mission that's gone bad?" He asked. Future Jack shrugged, not answering any of the questions that Owen fired at him. "Surely you know."

"It's the future. The future is mutable, ever changing. Can't predict it at all," Jack said with another shrug. "Will they die this day? Or will they live to fight another? No one knows, Owen. No one knows."

Owen frowned and looked back at the warehouse . He wanted to know what was beyond that door, and what had happened to the others. He started as a gun went off. Was Ianto hurt? Did one of the others get shot? He went to go after them, but future Jack held him back.

"No, we have other things to see. We'll leave what happens to whatever possible future they encounter," Jack said. Owen tried to argue, since he really wanted to know that everyone was all right, but this Jack wasn't listening. He grabbed Owen's hand, holding him in place as he pressed a button on his wrist strap. In a flash, they were off.

They were in a city street, presumably somewhere in Cardiff. Owen looked around. Then he looked down. The streets were filled with people. Some looked like they had fallen while running. Others looked like they had been crouched in fear, as if trying to hide from something. Still others looked like they had been trying to help some of the others get out of the way from something. They were half in and out of cars and buildings. Owen turned around in a circle. As far as he could see, all the people were dead. He had a look of shock on his face.

"They're dead?" He asked, knowing the answer, but asking anyhow. Jack nodded. "How?"

"Because of you," Jack said simply.

"Me? How? When? Is this for real?" Owen asked, more questions filling his mind than he had time to ask or for Jack to answer.

"Ah, ah, ah," Jack chided. "Timelines. Can't interfere, so I can't tell you. But let's just say that you did this."

Owen knelt down and felt for a pulse on the nearest person. It was a young man, his face frozen in a mask of terror. He tried another, a young woman. Then another. And when finally he didn't want to check anymore, he stood up and turned to Jack.

"Can I stop it?" He asked.

"Perhaps," Jack answered. "Only time will tell, as well as your actions and the others around you." Owen shuddered as he looked at the hundreds of people who lay dead. Thousands of people. Perhaps many thousand. Because of him. He shook his head. This couldn't be true. Could it?

"I don't want to look at this anymore," he said, closing his eyes. Jack said nothing, but a moment later, he felt a warm hand clasp his and behind his closed eyes he saw a flash of light that said they had changed locations. He was almost afraid to open his eyes, but when Jack didn't say anything, he knew he had to, if only to see where they were. His heart was pounding and he was scared of what he might find. After a long moment's silence, he opened his eyes and looked around.

The first thing he noticed was the silence. They were on a street somewhere and when he turned around, he realized that there wasn't a person to be found. At first, he thought it was nighttime. Future Jack was leaning against the side of a car with his arms crossed as he waited for Owen to look around.

"Well?" Owen asked, waiting to find out what it was he was supposed to see. Jack looked up. Owen followed his lead and his jaw dropped. The sky was black as pitch, but at the same time, full of color. Above them, surrounding the earth, were planets. Planets of all colors and sizes. He tried counting them, but couldn't keep track as he spun around in a circle.

"How?" he asked.

"That's a damn good question," Jack said. He had his hands on his hips are he looked upwards. "It's not every day you see twenty five other planets in plain sight. Actually, it's physically impossible. We should be ripped into a few million pieces, just by the gravitational pull of all of those other planets. And come to think of it, they should be ripping each other apart as well. Huh, well, science is never an exact thing."

"What's happening here?" Owen asked as he looked around the silent street again.

"Well, that part I can answer you," Jack said as he pushed off from the side of the abandoned car and strolled over to where Owen was standing with a confused look on his face. "Invasion."

"Invasion?" Owen echoed. Jack nodded. "Something's going to invade the Earth?" Jack nodded. "But who? When?"

"When is now, and to answer who, just take a look over there," Jack said and pointed to a point over Owen's shoulder. Owen turned around and his jaw fell open again. He could see row upon row of shiny gleaming bullet shaped objects coming out of space onto the Earth. They were shooting randomly and off in the distance he could hear people screaming.

"Oh my God," Owen said, shocked to the core as the aliens got closer and he recognized what they were from the Torchwood records. "Daleks!"

"Mmmm, yeah," Jack said with a nod. "Ornery buggers. Virtually impossible to kill, though I have done it, once or twice. Of course, they could say the same about me," he said with a grin.

"Those..." Owen was shuddering at the thought. "Those were the things that took down Torchwood One!" Jack nodded. Owen turned and watched as they landed and started making people evacuate their homes. He watched in horror as when there was any kind of defiance, the Daleks would just shoot the people and kill them without warning. He watched as one of the people closest to him, a man about his age froze as he was shot. Owen could see his skeleton before the glow stopped and the man dropped dead at his feet. "Oh, God."

Jack stood calmly and watched as people dropped around them and others were rounded up and herded away. Owen felt helpless as he watched.

"Is this the future for the human race?" Owen asked.

"Possibly," Jack nodded. "Whether someone stops them is another story."

"How can anyone stop them?" Owen cried, feeling like there should be something that someone could do, but not being able to see a way to stop them. The enormity of what was happening made him feel like everything they did with Torchwood was useless. There was no fighting this. "They're going to kill everyone."

"Maybe they will," Jack said with a nod. "But then again, maybe they won't. I've seen the end of the world a few times by now, so you never know." He shrugged. "Come, time to go."

"But what about the others?" Owen asked as Jack tugged him out of the way of some people fleeing the Daleks.

"Huh?" Jack asked.

"Gwen, Ianto, Tosh," Owen said. "How are they dealing with all this?"

"Oh, how does Torchwood ever deal with something like this?" Jack asked with a grin. "With guns blazing and going by the seat of their pants, how else?" Owen noticed that he didn't refer to any of the other team members by name and Owen wondered if any of them had even survived to fight the Daleks or whether they were dead long before this, and that was why the Daleks were free to invade.

"Ready to go back?" Jack asked. Owen nodded, sickened by what he had seen. He felt numb as Jack took his hand and brought him back to the Hub. A moment later, he was back in familiar surroundings and he sank down on the sofa, trembling.

"How can anyone stop a future like that?" He asked after a long moment where Jack just stood there watching him.

"How do you think?" Jack asked cryptically. Owen just shook his head, not knowing the answer. He had stopped believing that this was something that his subconscious was telling him about himself. After seeing the future, he knew that he wouldn't have come up with any of those things himself. This had to be real. "Come on, Owen. You know the answer. Look around you. The answer is here."

Owen looked up to see that Jack had his arms spread wide to indicate the area behind him. This time, he really looked at it – something he hadn't done in ages, having taken for granted a lot of what they did. The water tower stretched upwards to the roof high above them, the core to their operations. Scattered about the floor were their work stations. Owen stood up and wandered around, Jack following behind him. Each station showed the personality of their owners. Gwen had taken over Suzie's station and now it had taken on her personality. Photographs were taped to the side of the monitor, pictures of Gwen and Rhys together, or Gwen with a friend that he didn't know. He kept on looking and noticed a photograph of Tosh and himself. He grinned. It was the night they went out to do karaoke. He turned and walked to the next station.

Toshiko's station was very much like its owner. Everything was precisely in place to an almost mathematical precision. She did have some personal touches as well, but the image that the observer was left with was of an orderly person. He had the urge to mess it up and restrained himself. He turned and looked in the direction of Jack's office. He climbed the stairs to the second level and looked through the glass door.

Jack's office was as it always was, the massive desk taking up most of the room, with just enough space for someone to sit opposite. Alien artifacts were placed in niches in the walls, and there was the ever increasing mound of paperwork that Jack always complained about sitting on his desk. Owen left the office and turned, taking in Ianto's domain, which was tucked off to the side and in the back of the Hub. Mugs were set out, waiting for him to come back and make the coffee. Owen felt a craving for some caffeine right now, but he knew he'd never make heads or tails out of that infernal machine.

He stepped past the kitchen area and looked around. When he thought about the facility, he realized that Ianto just didn't make the coffee and clean up after the team. He also manned their façade in the form of the tourist centre high above their heads and was the front for their operations. Owen knew that Jack used him for hacking into the systems when Tosh was working on something else. He turned and looked towards the archway that led to the vaults below. Ianto also maintained those as an archivist, as well as taking care of whatever denizens they brought back to the Hub that were deposited by the rift. He realized that in the end, he really didn't know the people he worked with. He had just taken them for granted.

He turned away and came to where his own console was located. For the first time he noticed that there was something that glinted under the papers he had piled there. He reached out and slid the papers off and found a present sitting on the desk. He bit his lip. Even when he was being a jerk, someone thought to leave him a present. He sighed and turned towards Jack.

"So, the answer is all of this?" He asked as, with the sweep of his hand he indicated the Hub. Jack nodded.

"Well, not just the equipment. Can't do much without the people, too," Jack said. Owen digested that for a moment. It was like he was seeing the place for the first time. Again, he looked at the present someone had left for him. Judging by how neatly it was wrapped, he would guess that it was Tosh who had left it for him.

"I really know how to fuck everything up, don't I?" He asked. Jack didn't reply and he kept on going. "Even when there are people here who want to help, or are going through their own issues, I have to be the one who sticks the knife in the back. Can't be happy with anything, can I?" He turned without really seeing anything as he made his way back down the stairs and over to the sofa where he sat down again. "Well, that's it. Things have got to change. I need to change. I don't want to be part of a future if it's the end of the human race. I'm mean, what's the point? But Jack said that the future was mutable. It can change. I can change. And you know what? I'm going to make sure that future doesn't happen." With a satisfied nod he sat back and crossed his arms. When he looked around, he found that he was alone. His future Jack was gone, and he was by himself.

He let out a massive yawn, feeling extremely tired all of the sudden. Well, it had been a busy night. He felt the overwhelming urge to sleep, but before he did he went back to his console and looked something up on his computer. He scanned the CCTV footage in the area and once he found what he wanted he jotted a note down to himself, yawning all the while. The urge to sleep was stronger and he frowned. It felt like getting retconned. He shook his head and finished writing his note. Dropping the pen, he went back to the sofa to lay down. Maybe if he closed his eyes for a few moments, he could get up a bit and finish what he wanted to do. He barely remembered his head hitting the cushion before he was out like a light.

Sometime later in the evening, he awoke with a start. He checked his watch and blinked. Somewhere, six hours had passed. It was the middle of the night. None of the others had come back and he was glad. It gave him time to set some things in motion. He sat up, feeling a sense of urgency, though his dreams were now just vague feelings rather than images of what he had witnessed during the night. He frowned, knowing there was something he wanted to remember. He got up and stretched.

Pushing himself off the sofa, he headed over to his desk. His experiment was ready to go to the next level. He quickly decanted the vial into another vial, added some more liquid and set it bubbling away over a Bunsen burner. Leaving it in the autopsy room, he made his way back to his computer and looked down at the note that he had left for himself a few hours earlier. He smiled to himself. It was time to get to work.


	6. Chapter 6

The first sign that morning had come was when the alarms went off and the cog wheel door opened, startling Owen. Ianto stepped through the door and stopped abruptly. He sniffed. He distinctly smelled food. Ianto frowned. It didn't smell like pizza, and he knew for a fact that no one could work the coffee machine but him. Sniffing again, he realized he didn't smell coffee. He stepped further inside.

"Good morning, and Happy Christmas, Ianto!" Owen said. He had some garland wrapped around his neck in the form of a tie and he leaned over the upper railing to wave at the Welshman below him.

"Good morning, Owen. Happy Christmas to you, too." Ianto said, surprise evident in his voice. "Is that breakfast I smell?"

"Indeed it is, my friend!" Owen said with a smile that confused Ianto all the more. He came down the stairs just as the lift doors opened and Jack strode out. Jack stopped just behind Ianto and looked around.

"Is that bacon I smell?" Jack asked. Ianto nodded, his eyes still on Owen. He was totally confused and was wondering if some alien appliance had been somehow activated and body napped his coworker, replacing him with a much nicer clone. Jack noticed that Owen was decked out in tinsel and garland and he glanced at Ianto.

"Happy Christmas, Jack!" Owen said as he slid down the railing. "Since you two will be stuck here working today, I've made you breakfast."

Jack looked taken aback by Owen's seemingly abrupt change of attitude from the night before. "Why thank you, Owen. That's, er… very thoughtful of you." Owen walked over and hooking his hands through both man's arms, he led them over to where he had set up a card table that was set for two people.

"Voila!" Owen said with a grin. "Breakfast is served!"

"You're not joining us?" Jack asked, just as mystified as Ianto was by Owen's change in behavior.

"Oh no, I don't have time for that. I have places to go, people to see, women and young children to assist!" Owen said with a flourish as he lifted the serving cover off of the two plates on the table. Ianto blinked. There was a full English breakfast on each and they both looked like they had just come off the grill. "Hurry, gentlemen, eat it while it's hot."

The two men sat carefully on the folding chairs as they watched Owen flit away to another part of the Hub. He came back with his leather jacket on, a smile creasing his face.

"Gentlemen, enjoy your repast. I'm afraid I wasn't going to attempt to make coffee, so Ianto, you will have to do the honors. But never fear, put the covers back on and the breakfast will stay warm until you are ready," he said. "I'm off. Need to go help a little lady in distress."

Jack and Ianto didn't move a muscle until the cog wheel door closed. As soon as it did, Ianto was up in a flash and over to the closest console, Jack hot on his heels. Ianto pulled up the CCTV records for the Hub and started scrolling back in double time, trying to see what the hell happened the evening before. Jack looked over his shoulder as they watched Owen unassembled their breakfast, which was preceded by him doing some work at the computer, then back to his lab where presumably he was working on one of his experiments. On and on each hour passed until finally Jack reached out and touched Ianto's sleeve and shouted "Stop!" Ianto missed the mark and had to scroll forward again until they got to the point where Jack had seen something.

Owen was seated on the sofa, and it looked like he was talking to someone. Ianto raised the audio, but the acoustical pickup from where the camera was weren't good enough to record more than a murmur.

"Is he talking to himself?" Ianto wondered. He looked around the rest of the Hub while the video was rolling, but didn't see anyone. Jack shrugged.

"Dunno. Go back a little further," he suggested. Ianto rolled back further and stopped just before Jack cried out again. "Damn, you're good," Jack said in an admiring tone. Ianto smiled briefly but was focused on what he had just seen. He scrolled forward slowly and they both caught a flash of light.

"Show me that again," Jack said with a frown. Ianto obligingly went backwards and forwards, showing the flash. One minute, the space was empty, the next, Owen was standing there with his arm raised, though there was no one next to him. "Again." Ianto replayed it again. "Okay, let's go back further. Each time there was a similar scene on one of the cameras. One where Owen was there and disappeared, another when he wasn't there and suddenly reappeared. Each time Jack had Ianto replay the scene a few times and he watched intently.

Eventually, they had rolled back in time until the beginning of the night, stopping only when they saw themselves leaving for their dinner out. The two men stared at the frozen image for a long time.

"So, what happened?" Ianto asked. Jack said nothing. "Did he have a visitation of some kind? An alien threat that didn't set off the alarms? And how could anyone or anything get in here without setting off the alarms? And speaking of which, why wasn't Owen shooting at whoever it was, if they were invading?"

Jack had his arms crossed and was stroking his chin thoughtfully. "I don't know," he said quietly. Ianto glanced at him. There was something in his tone which led Ianto to believe that Jack did know something. But for the life of him, he didn't know what it was. And it was obvious that Jack wasn't going to share it or he would have already.

"So now what?" Ianto asked. "Do we go after Owen and check him out?"

"Nope," Jack said, turning abruptly and heading back over to the card table that Owen had set up. "We have our breakfast waiting." He sat down and turned in his seat to look at Ianto. "What?"

"That's it?" Ianto asked. "We have evidence that something odd happened in the Hub last night, something which drastically changed Owen's attitude and you're not worried?"

"Nah," Jack said nonchalantly as he lifted the warming cover again. "Whoever it was, they did us a favor in the form of changing Owen's attitude towards Chrismas. Why question it if nothing else was bothered? Oh, he was right! It's still hot. Ianto, see if you could make us some coffee. It would go so good right now with this breakfast." Without thinking, Ianto went over to the coffee machine and made them two mugs of coffee. He brought them over and sat down opposite Jack.

"Doesn't this bother you?" Ianto finally asked. Jack shrugged as he took a bite of his food and almost swooned. Ianto found that the smell from the food had made him extremely hungry and he really did want to eat it. While he was still suspicious that something was really wrong, he really couldn't argue in the face of Jack's complacency and the fact that he had seen Owen cook the breakfast and nothing had looked wrong. He pulled off the cover and began to eat.

Out in the streets of Cardiff, Owen drove around until he found a parking space. He was in a run down, dilapidated area of town – the kind of place he wouldn't normally be caught dead in his off time and only alive when he was working a case. But today was different. He was whistling as he parked, and had anyone been watching in the early morning hours, it would have been to see a happy man pulling a large Douglas fir tree off the top of his sports car.

He grabbed a bag out of the boot and slung it over his shoulder before picking up the tree and hauling it into a nearby building. He held his breath and carried it up the stairs, pausing to kick some trash out of the way and to check the flat numbers. Getting to the floor he wanted, he nodded. He made his way down the hallway until he got to the door he was looking for. Taking out an alien device, he easily picked the simple lock and let himself in. The door moved inward and he entered a dark room. Pulling a torch out of his pocket, he aimed it at the floor and turned it on. He didn't know if the woman (he had found out her name was Ceri,) or her son slept in the room, so he wanted to be careful when he came inside. It was empty and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Moving to the other side of the room, he set up the tree, trying to be as quiet as possible. He strung it with lights, then with ornaments. He took the other decorations off the other tree and put them on the new tree as well, using one of the paper stars at the top (although he had to climb up on the windowsill to reach it.) When he was done, he pulled a bunch of packages out of the sack at his feet. There were presents that a little boy would like along with clothing, gift certificates and a letter for Ceri. He carefully set those in their places under the tree before leaving. He smiled as he locked the door behind him. Heading down the stairs, he bypassed the lobby and went straight to the basement. Using his torch again, he found his way over to the electrical box and cut off the bolt that the electric company had used to secure the panel when they had shut off power to the building. Opening the door, he turned off all but a few select breakers, and then threw the master switch. He smiled, the closed the panel and left out the basement door.

Stepping past piles of garbage, he made his way to the street and looked up. At one end of the complex, he saw multicolored lights shining. He nodded in satisfaction, then got into his car and drove off.

"Mama!" A young boy's voice cried out. It was morning, and Ceri Evans smiled at the excitement in her son's voice. "Mama, come see!" She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, seeing the peeling paint that met her eyes every day. Her smile turned a little sad as she got off the futon that served as their bed and she got up to greet the day, thankful that it was another one that she would have with her little boy. She was worried about him, but there was nothing she could do. She had tried, and had been turned away so many times that she had stopped asking for him. She shook her head. Today was not a day for sadness, but for happiness with her son.

"Happy Christmas, Jamie my love," she said as she came through the door. Then she stopped dead in her tracks. Standing there in front of her was a large Christmas tree. Her eyes grew huge as she took in the size. Her little boy was dwarfed by it as he danced excitedly in front of it.

"Look, Mama! Santa left us presents!" He turned and stared at the tree, mesmerized by how it had grown in proportion from just the night before. It was magnificent, and the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his young life. In fact, the tree was more of an attraction than the brightly wrapped presents below.

"Oh my word," Ceri said as she clasped her hands over her mouth, truly shocked. She looked up at the top of the tree where one of her son's handmade stars rested at the top. Taking it all in, she saw her decorations interwoven with the new ones that glimmered in the soft light. It was then that she realized that the tree had lights, and that they shone brightly in the early morning light. As her eyes moved downwards, she saw piles and piles of gaily wrapped presents of all shapes and sizes. "He really did," she whispered softly. "Santa really did."

Jamie ran over and tugged on her hand, urging his mother to come sit in front of the tree. She sank to her knees, her limbs unable to hold her up any longer. Jamie crawled into her lap and hugged her.

"Mama, it's beautiful!" He exclaimed, his eyes shining brightly. "And look, Santa left you presents as well!" Not being able to stay still for a moment, he got off her lap and went over to the tree. Reaching beneath it, he pulled a large package and tugged it across the floor. It looked like a basket. Jamie helped her to unwrap it, though she cautioned him against tearing the precious paper. When they pulled the wrapping paper off, her eyes filled with tears. It was a large basket of food, and it had the label from Mr. Adam's shop downtown.

"Mama, look at all that! That could feed an army!" Her son exclaimed. He examined each item in the basket carefully and after doing the same, Ceri decided it was safe and she opened a box of crackers for them to share with a small wedge of cheese. Jamie then opened another present and found a toy. He was so surprised that he just stopped and admired it for the longest time before carefully setting it aside.

He turned and looked at his mother, who was nibbling on a piece of cheese. "Would you like another one, Mama?"

"There's another one for me?" She asked in surprise. Her son nodded and pulled a large package out from under the tree. It was addressed to her and signed by Santa. The box was heavy and she carefully removed the wrapping before opening it. Inside was a warm winter coat. She stared down at it in surprise.

"Oh Mama, it's beautiful!" Her son exclaimed and she had to agree with him that it was. She reached out her hand and touched the soft wool. She closed her eyes again to stop herself from crying again and breathed a prayer of thanks for whoever her benefactor was. Jamie opened another present, which held some clothes, along with a store receipt in case it didn't fit him correctly. Ceri was astonished. Whoever it was had been very thoughtful. She wished they had stayed so she could thank them personally. Though honestly, she had never had anything like this happen in her life and wouldn't even know how to begin to say thank you.

Together they opened their presents one by one, each one as thoughtful a gift as the one before. When finally they were done, they had a pile around them as each gift had been carefully examined and praised by them both. Jamie stood up and smiled at the tree. Then he turned. "Mama?"

"Yes, honey," his mother said as she looked up from where she had been carefully folding the wrapping paper. Jamie had something in his hand. "What is it, love?"

"Something else from Santa," Jamie said as he came back to where his mother knelt on the floor. He handed her an envelope. She looked down at the front, seeing her name spelled out in a somewhat messy script. Frowning thoughtfully, she opened the large envelope and gasped as something fell into her lap. Looking down, she saw a set of keys. She shivered and looked inside the envelope.

There was a bundle of folded paper inside and she pulled it out, her hand trembling when she caught the word DEED on the top in bold letters. Opening the folded paper, she saw that their mysterious benefactor had given them a deed to a flat. It was in her name, and included with the paperwork was the largest check she had ever seen in her life. Her mouth opened in a silent "O," she read the note that came with the paperwork. It said:

_This is no place to raise a child or to give your little boy the care he needs. So please accept this gift of a new place to live, along with this check to get you started. You will also find paperwork to get your son the care he needs so he can grow up healthy and strong. Please don't reject this gift, because it is the least that someone can do, which is to spread a little holiday cheer this season. _

_Enjoy your new home and be well. _

_Happy Christmas!_

_Santa Claus_

Tears started forming as the young woman saw that she had been given a new life, one which would allow her to raise her son and for them to be happy. With a trembling hand, she picked up the papers and noticed that besides the bank draft there was also an account in her name with some additional money in a trust fund. The amount made her catch her breath as she realized that their mysterious benefactor had thought of everything.

"Mama? What's wrong, Mama? Don't you like the presents that Santa brought us?" Her son asked with a worried look on his face. She put down the papers she had been reading and pulled him into her lap.

"Oh yes, honey. I like them a lot!" She said with a laugh.


	7. Chapter 7

Later that day, Owen Harper looked out the window of his flat and smiled as he stared out into the night. He could see holiday lights in other people's flats as night fell. It had been a good day, and he felt satisfied that he had been able to bring some joy into at least two people's lives. He sipped the warm lager that had been sitting out while he sat in his chair contemplating the world. He started when he heard a knock on the door.

Frowning thoughtfully, he got up and went over to answer. He didn't bother checking the spy hole as he opened the door. On the other side of the door stood Jack and Ianto, their arms full of presents and a basket of food.

"Happy Christmas, Owen!" Jack said with a grin. Owen looked from one man to another and smiled.

"Happy Christmas, Jack, Ianto. Please, come inside," Owen said as he stepped out of the way. Jack swept through the door, the edges of his greatcoat swirling around him as he stepped into the main room, Ianto a step behind him. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the Hub today?"

"There seems to be a lull in stuff coming through, so we thought we'd pop out for a bit while it was quiet," Ianto said as he stepped around the island counter and into Owen's kitchen. Placing his packages on the counter, he started to unpack them. Owen sniffed appreciatively as Ianto carefully lifted a roasting pan out of the bag and placed it on the counter. Jack had put the packages he had on the table by the window and came over to where Owen stood.

"We figured you'd be alone today, so thought you wouldn't mind if we dropped in," Jack said as he shed his coat and folded it over the back of one of the bar stools at the counter. Owen smiled and nodded. "Feeling a bit better today?"

"Yeah, I am," Owen said as he pulled another stool out and sat down. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry you missed out dinner last night," Jack went on. "So we're here to make it up to you." He tried to sneak a finger in to grab something off of one of the covered plates and Ianto slapped his hand away. Retreating, he pouted at Ianto who grinned at him before turning to the stove and turning it on to reheat some of the side dishes.

"Looks like you have enough to feed an army there," Owen observed.

"We did have more, but Ianto insisted we drop off the extras at the shelter first," Jack admitted as this time he was able to sneak a roasted carrot out of the pan while Ianto's back was turned.

"I saw that," Ianto said as he lowered the heat under the pan.

"No you didn't," Jack said. "Your back was turned."

"Santa saw it," Owen said with a nod and Jack gave him a look of surprise as Ianto chuckled. "And he knows who's been naughty."

"Oh, we're doomed, then," Ianto announced as he turned around with a bottle of wine in his hand. "Because we all know that Jack is always naughty."

"Does that mean I don't get any presents?" Jack asked. Ianto waggled a finger at him and shook his head, making Owen laugh. Smiling, Jack looked over to Owen and clasped a hand to the younger man's shoulder. "It looks like you had a change of heart about the holiday."

"I did," Owen admitted. "And you were right." He glanced down at his hands and then back up at his boss. "Katie wouldn't have wanted me to act like that. So it's time I changed the way I thought."

"I don't know what it was that made you change your mind, but I'm glad you did," Jack said with a smile. "This is a time for people to look out for one another, and to be a family."

"Are we a family, Jack?" Owen asked. He watched as Ianto opened a cupboard and took some plates out for them to eat. Jack stood up and grabbed a knife and fork to carve the roast, which Ianto had just uncovered.

"Of course we are, Owen. What is a family, but a group of people with a common link of some kind?" Jack asked as he began to carve. "Sometimes they're related, but sometimes, it's by choice." Ianto dished out the sides as Jack lifted the steaming sliced meat onto each plate. "We spend enough time together that I'd say we are a family." Owen nodded thoughtfully as he poured the wine into three glasses for each of them.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Expecting someone?" Jack asked. Owen shook his head and got up to answer. When he opened the door, it was to find Tosh standing in the hallway with a box in her arms.

"Hello," she said with a tentative smile. Owen grinned at her.

"Happy Christmas, Tosh!" He said as he opened the door wider. "I thought you were spending time with your family today." She looked a bit startled that he would have guessed that, but she nodded.

"I did, but then I thought of you spending the day alone and I thought you might like some company," she said as she stepped through the door. She stopped short when she saw that Jack and Ianto were already there. "Oh!"

"Come on in," Owen said. "The more, the merrier. Jack and Ianto had the same thought and just stopped in with a Christmas dinner. You're welcome to join us." He gestured grandly at the display of food and Tosh smiled as she moved further into the room.

"Thank you, Owen. I've already eaten, but I'll stay for the company. Oh, I brought a gift!" She turned to where Owen was standing and handed him the box.

"Thanks. You didn't have to do that," Owen said as he turned and placed the package on the coffee table in front of the sofa. "It is thoughtful of you to think of me."

Tosh turned and gave a surprised look at Jack who shrugged at her. They too were seeing a new side of Owen today and he was just happy to accept it. Owen had gone to the cupboard and got another wine glass for Toshiko when there was another knock at the door.

"Let me guess," Owen said as he placed the glass on the counter and walked back over to the door. He opened it and saw that Gwen was outside with a box in her hands. "Happy Christmas, Gwen. Come join the party."

"There's a party?" Gwen asked as she stepped inside and saw that the others were already there. "Doesn't that just figure?"

"Great minds, Gwen," Jack said with a laugh. Gwen smiled and turned back to Owen.

"I thought you might like some dessert. Rhys threw his back out in the backyard earlier and now he's out cold on his pain medication. His mother made me take all the desserts back with us and I really can't eat it all so I thought that perhaps you might like a little something for the holiday."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Gwen," Owen said graciously. "Thank you. Would you care to join us? We were just going to have some wine." He gestured to the others behind him. "We'd love to have you."

"Thanks, I'd like that," she said as she came further into the room and carried the pie into the kitchen area. "Oh, that looks lovely," she said as she spied the food that Jack and Ianto had brought. She nicked a slice of roast off the platter and ate it, licking the juice off her fingers. "This is so much better than what I had over at Rhys' mother's. Mind if I have some?"

"There's plenty to go around," Ianto said. He turned and got another plate. He added some food to it and scooted closer to Jack so she would be able to sit at the counter and eat with them. She smiled gratefully at him and Owen added another glass for her as well. Jack poured the rest of the wine for the two women.

"This is rather festive," Toshiko said with a smile as she watched the rest of them eat.

"It is," Owen said with a nod. He picked up his glass. "A toast," he said.

"To family," he announced as he lifted his glass to the air. The others raised their glasses to match the toast.

"To our Torchwood family," Jack said with a smile. Ianto nodded and together they clinked their glasses together. They ate and then Gwen cut them slices of mincemeat pie to have for dessert. When they were done, they moved off to the living area where they sat down and relaxed.

"Happy Christmas," Owen said, raising his glass of eggnog in a toast to the others.

"Happy Christmas, Owen," both Jack and Ianto replied as they matched his toast, Gwen and Toshiko a beat behind them. And so another Christmas night passed, where all over the city people celebrated with those they were closest to, whether rich or poor. Owen felt satisfied that for once he had made a difference to someone on this cold winter day, and as Jack slung a companionable arm around his shoulders, he finally felt good about the holiday, for the first time in a very long time.

_The End._


End file.
